We recently had the opportunity to see Batman: Arkham Knight in action in the form of a 30-minute demo showing Batman gliding through Gotham City’s impressive skyline, barreling through concrete walls in the Batmobile, punching bad-guys and coming into contact with key Batman characters, friend and foe.

Here are six key details that we picked out from what we got to see of Batman: Arkham Knight.

We can’t say whether that’s actually the case until we get to go hands on with game, but we can say that, from what we saw, the Batmobile looks like fun.

It’s evident that Rocksteady has worked to make the transition between moving around Gotham City as Batman and barreling around in the Batmobile as seamless as possible.

As such, the player can summon the Batmobile at any moment and, conversely, can eject from the vehicle, straight into a glide, whenever they please. If that transition is as effortless as it looked in the demo we were shown, then the Batmobile could well make traversing Gotham City a hell of a lot of fun.

Batman Arkham Knight – Batman’s New Nemesis

As well as drawing on Batman’s gallery of rogues with the inclusion of the likes of The Scarecrow, Two-Face and Penguin, Rocksteady has decided to create their own villain in the form of the Arkham Knight.

In the demo we were shown, the Arkham Knight appeared right at the end, shooting Batman in the back with a pistol before towering over the caped crusader in a menacing fashion and declaring, “this ends tonight”.

Other than what he looks like, we know very little about the Arkham Knight, but in our interview with Rocksteady, the studio did tell us about the “terrifying” prospect of creating their own villain and what factors led them to create the Arkham Knight.

We do wonder, though, is the Arkham Knight really an entirely new character, or is it just the suit that’s a new design? Could the man inside the suit actually be a familiar villain? It has been remoured that Hush, a character that had a cameo in Arkham City, would play a heavy role. Could Hush be the Arkham Knight?

Batman: Arkham Knight – Riddler’s Racetracks

The Riddler is of course back in Arkham Knight and he’s got a new challenge for Batman in the form of trap-laden racetracks.

After confronting the Riddler for the first time, Batman hacks and downloads Riddler’s codes, allowing him some control over the racetracks.

In the track that we saw, the player was able to open and close doors that were in their path and slide sections of the track in and out of the walls.

This adds a slight puzzle element to the race tracks, though in truth, it would seem that they’re more about quick reactions than they are about deep thought.

The race tracks get harder every lap, with parts of the floor between destroyed by Riddler in the track that we were shown, at one point forcing the player to use the Batmobile’s boost to drive up on the wall and on to the ceiling.

It will be interesting to see what’s in store with other tracks, but they look to be a good way of both training and testing players when it comes to the Batmobile.

Batman: Arkham Knight – Gotham City’s Size

Rocksteady has said that Arkham Knight includes the whole of Gotham City, built to scale. We’re not sure what that means, given that Gotham City isn’t a real place, but you get the gist – it’s significantly bigger.

Not only have the streets been widened in order to provide the space the Batmobile needs to do its thing, but there’s a greater verticality to Arkham City, allowing you to swoop, glide and dive greater distances.

The city itself looked very impressive indeed, with a detour through the Chinatown area showing off fancy next-gen neon lighting that provides just one example of why Rocksteady says that Arkham Knight could only work on next-gen consoles.

Batman: Arkham Knight – Environmental & Fear Takedowns

There are a number of new combat mechanics being added in Batman: Arkham Knight, such as counter throws, contextual counters and fear takedowns, all of which we got to see.

Contextual counters allow Batman to make use of environmental objects to take out enemies in a fashion reminiscent of Sleeping Dogs. In the example we saw, Batman smashed some poor thug’s face into an electrical contraption, frying the guy.

A new edition to stealth, the fear takedown was also on show. We saw Batman pop-out of a vent to surprise three thugs, the game dropping into slow-mo in order to allow the player to take out the enemies in the blink of an eye.

Batman: Arkham Knight – Gadgets in Flight

Rocksteady is removing the restrictions on gadget use in Arkham Knight, meaning that players can now use gadgets during flight.

In the example we saw, Batman was able to use the line-launcher to come straight out of a glide and perch himself about a group of enemies.

When gliding down to confront them, he then threw out a few Batarangs before landing and proceeding to batter the enemies in old-school Arkham style.

One other minor, but noteworthy edition, is the ability for Batman to use his grappler to do a 180-turn while gliding. It’s not a big deal, but it should make navigating Gotham City a lot easier and that’s important, given that the area you’ve got to navigate is now larger.